1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display apparatus and method for displaying a plurality of images. It also relates to a computer-readable recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to execute control for realizing the image display method is recorded. Still further, the present invention relates to a photograph print order accepting apparatus incorporating the image display apparatus of the present invention.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital cameras may provide an image at a lower cost compared to silver halide film cameras since they require no film cost. As a result, more and more images are obtained by digital cameras. This trend is further encouraged by increasingly larger capacity of recording media detachably provided to digital cameras. As a result, a great number of images are stocked in the recording media of digital cameras, and other recording media including hard disks and CD-R of personal computers and the like on which the image data read out from the recording media of digital cameras are recorded. Those images include both necessary images (good images) and unnecessary images (failed photographs, duplicated images, and the like), which are moreover often left ungroomed.
Organizing such a great number of images is a troublesome task. Consequently, apparatuses for assisting in searching/extracting necessary images, and extracting/deleting unnecessary images from the stocked images, or classifying/organizing stocked images based on the event, date and time, location, and the like are proposed.
One such apparatus is known as described, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-141584. The apparatus displays a plurality of candidate images to be deleted at the same time, which are determined to be similar among candidate images to be deleted that satisfy a predetermined deletion criterion, and deletes an unnecessary image based on selection by the user.
As describe in the aforementioned patent publication, however, it is not easy for the user to recognize the difference between the displayed images, and to decide which image should be deleted (saved) even the similar candidate images to be deleted are collectively displayed at the same time.
The present invention has been developed in view of the circumstances described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an image display apparatus and method that allows the user to select an image to be deleted or saved from a group of images constituted by a plurality of similar images. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a computer-readable recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to execute control for realizing the image display method of the present invention is recorded. It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a photograph print order accepting apparatus that includes the image display apparatus of the present invention.